London (AFP) – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s appointment as the permanent manager of Manchester United is set to leave Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk looking for a new home.
Solskjaer has revealed he and his family plan to live in the house he started building 12 years ago after signing a three-year contract as Old Trafford boss.
The Norwegian, according to reports, has been renting out the house to Dutch defender Van Dijk, a cornerstone of United’s great rivals, who are battling Manchester City for the Premier League title.
“We’ve really enjoyed the last eight years living in Norway,” former United striker Solskjaer said in an interview with MUTV.
“It’s going to be a change for them but we’re looking forward to it.
“The six months that we agreed on (when initially taking the job on until the end of the season) as a family we agreed to do it separately as there was no need to move them over. That’s gone now. Now we’re moving together.
“We built a house, or I started it in 2007, but finally maybe in 2019 we can move into it — that’s long planning.”
Solskjaer, who has overseen 14 wins from his 19 games in caretaker charge, put the five-bedroom property on the market after he returned to Norway to manage Molde.
But he failed to find a buyer for his house, and reportedly rented it out to Van Dijk, meaning Solskjaer has had to stay at the Lowry Hotel in the city centre.
The Lowry was where Solskjaer’s predecessor Jose Mourinho lived during his two-and-a-half years in Manchester before his dismissal in December.
